Portside

Olio, by Tyehimba Jess, has just been awarded the Pulitzer Prize for poetry. It is an outstanding book that visits, and reimagines, a deeply influential yet far too little examined African American cultural moment. This is a powerful, innovative work of verse created by one of this country's best contemporary poets. Here is a review.

Director Larraín has stated that the way Latin Americans think is shaped by poetry, by metaphor, and that his film is partly concerned with the power of poetry to move and influence. We are shown Neruda’s huge influence, as a communist poet, over his natural constituency: the ordinary working man... But what we do not see in the film is the immensely moving capacity of poetry to break down barriers between people of diametrically opposed political beliefs.

Big Little Lies and the problems of whiteness, access, class, and privilege intersecting with feminism.

In a country with Latin America’s highest death rate from diabetes, peasant communities are at risk thanks in part to Coca Cola addiction.

The Persian American poet draws on ancient tradition to condemn a certain political leader's confusion of truth and falsehood in our own times.

Critiquing a somewhat fawning book by a well-trod biographer of the Atlantic aristocracy, the reviewer nevertheless finds enough merit in the work to present a picture of the royals and their long-suffering and sometimes insufferable prince as a window on Britain's royal family and a glimmer as to why masses of British subjects still revere the preposterous institution.

Jack London, who died 100 years ago last November, was one of the most prominent socialist writers of the early 20th century. Here is a look at some of his political writings.

In 2012, California amended its "Three Strikes" law--one of the harshest criminal sentencing policies in the country. The passage of Prop. 36 marked the first time in U.S. history that citizens voted to shorten sentences of those currently incarcerated. Within days the reintegration of thousands of "lifers" was underway. The Return examines this unprecedented reform through the eyes of those on the front lines--prisoners suddenly freed.

Given their history, “are eggs healthy?” has become a frequently asked nutrition question. To answer this, it’s important to look at eggs not only on their own, but in context of the entire diet, especially when compared to foods they may replace (and vice-versa).

If you really want to understand how Moscow sees U.S. intelligence, turn off the congressional hearings and start watching “Adaptation.”